Manufacturing Technology Trends in Spotlight at EMO Hannover 2011

Program highlights revealed for September machine tool event

Feb 02, 2011

In addition to exhibits by machine tool manufacturers, tooling suppliers, software developers and programmers, and various other technology suppliers, EMO Hannover 2011 will have a parallel program of conferences on topics of technical and business relevance to manufacturing technology users and vendors.

Preparations are well underway for EMO Hannover 2011, the next staging of the world’s most important and anticipated trade event for machine tools and metal-working technology. The biennial expo will take place September 19-24 in Hanover, Germany.

"EMO Hannover is the marketplace where innovative supply meets sophisti-cated demand," explained Sylke Becker, Director Press and Public Relations for the German Machine Tool Builders' Assn., (VDW), the organization that stages EMO. "As the leading global trade show it serves in particular to address new trends in the industry. Forward-looking solutions are the name of the game at EMO Hannover," she added.

In addition to exhibits by machine tool manufacturers, tooling suppliers, soft-ware developers and programmers, and various other technology suppliers, EMO Hannover 2011 will have a parallel program of conferences on topics of technical and business relevance to manufacturing technology users and vendors.

Sustainable manufacturing Specifically, a conference program titled “Sustainable Manufacturing” on September 20-21 will be staged by the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tool and Forming Technology (IWU), Chemnitz, Germany, in collaboration with VDW. The main topics of the event are: • Exploring technical solutions to improve the energy and resource efficiency of cutting and forming machine tools and manufacturing processes; • Efficient plant design and process chains; and • Production planning and manufacturing systems that emphasize sustain-ability.

Business networking In a structured effort to promote business networking for exhibitors and visitors, VDW will collaborate with the Enterprise Europe Network to present B2Fair. This program will use a database to identify and arrange meetings between visitors and exhibiting companies, to help initiate international partnerships or find new clients, suppliers, or trade partners.

According to VDW, b2fair acts as a matchmaking fair. Interested exhibitors and visitors will be able to enter their profiles in the www.b2fair.com database, and will be as-signed a personal login. In the weeks prior to the start of EMO Hannover, they will be invited to select potentially interesting business contacts online. Based on their selections, a customized contact and meeting schedule will be generated. The of-fers and requests will be communicated to a network of 30 partners in 14 countries across Europe.

Next generation’s skills, potential EMO Hannover is planning a “job fair” called Maschinenbauer – Job mit Power (Mechanical Engineering – A Powerful Career), which is expected to draw over 8,000 students and young machinists throughout the six-day event. A program of topics related to machine tool training and education will be presented. In a desig-nated area, companies will be invited to showcase the factors makes them attrac-tive employers, and young machinists will demonstrate their skills. Questions and hands-on participation will be encouraged.

Aerospace manufacturing technologies The use of new materials for aircraft manufacturing continues to grow, and so on September 22-23 the Leibniz University of Hannover's Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Machine Tools (IFW) and the Göttingen-based Machining In-novations Network (MIN) will host a conference on "New manufacturing technolo-gies in the aerospace industry.”

One example is the use of beta-titanium alloys in combination with CFRP for aircraft fuselage structures, and similar developments for undercarriage manufac-turing. Both aircraft manufacturers and instrument and machine tool producers need to keep pace with innovative solutions, from new tool concepts for drilling and mill-ing high temperature resistant materials and compounds, to new machine tool de-signs for cost-effective titanium processing or strategies for 5-axis machining. This is among the reasons that aerospace manufacturing is an important driver for ma-chining technology.

Current solutions and future trends in component manufacturing and machining in the aerospace industry will be presented and discussed at the conference, which is being held this year for the eleventh time. Experts will address issues relating to machining technology, machine tools, production planning, and repair processes.

Milestones in titanium The Machining Innovations Network is planning a supplemental program at EMO, titled "Milestones in cost-effective titanium component production." The aerospace industry is a model as well as a catalyst for innovations in many other sectors, and increasing use of compound materials, particularly high-tech titanium, presents new challenges to machining. Speed, precision and flexibility must be increased, costs need to be cut back and production times shortened.

The special event will show current highlights and milestones in machining tita-nium components. Cooperation between researchers, developers, manufacturers and users has improved manufacturing efficiency, and the event will present results of some innovative compound experiments, as well as novel engineering ap-proaches to machining problems.